Saturday, delegates heard from 14 candidates for statewide office, few of them with any name recognition beyond the inner circle of activist Democrats. It was a little like catching a game at Fenway Park one night and a AAA game at Pawtucket the next afternoon.

But the joy of minor league baseball is the chance to catch a rising star. For a year, activist Democrats have been looking for a candidate to get excited about. For most of Saturday, the feeling in the DCU Arena Saturday was that a lot of them are still looking.

But by the end of the day, some had found a rookie candidate they could cheer for in Don Berwick.

Delegates I spoke to seemed to like all five candidates for governor, without loving any of them. They were either positive or uninterested in the candidates for the other contested statewide races: lieutenant governor, attorney general and treasurer.

But this convention had no Deval Patrick or Elizabeth Warren taking it by storm. The candidates did their best with the 10-minute speaking opportunity they were given. With a significant percentage of delegates officially uncommitted, they hoped to tip the balance with a rousing performance.

These players hit some solid singles and doubles with their speeches, but there were no homeruns, no extended ovations. The folks wearing the candidate's T-shirts and carrying their signs cheered, but delegates mostly stayed in their seats and applauded politely.

Treasurer Steven Grossman, the front-runner for governor in pre-convention delegate counts – though running a distant second in polls of primary voters – delivered uncharacteristic volume, but no poetry. Attorney General Martha Coakley, leading in the polls, started her speech with something like an apology for losing her Senate bid to Scott Brown in 2010, promising to work harder this time. Only in discussing her brother's suicide and pledging more services for mental health and addiction did she show some of the passion her critics say she lacks.

Grossman and Coakley were both expected to get the 15 percent of delegates required to make the primary ballot. They did, but neither got as many votes as their campaigns hoped.

The surprise at the convention was the strength of Don Berwick. With his passionate support for single-payer health care and his opposition to casinos, Berwick has been the candidate of what one veteran political observer called the "progressive establishment." Still, there's been doubt whether he would cross the 15 percent threshold.

But many saw Berwick's support growing in the run-up to the convention. His speech was a passionate declaration of war against injustice built around the story of Isaiah, young patient of Berwick's who survived cancer only to die from a toxic mix of social ills, including poverty, addiction and racism.

Page 2 of 2 - Berwick's passion resonated with the delegtes, who gave him enough votes to come within a single percentage point of Coakley out of second place.

Juliette Kayyem had hoped she could ignite that kind of passion. Her campaign stressed youth and energy, painting her as the alternative to the familiar faces of Coakley and Grossman. Her speech underlined that challenge: "Don't choose the person who's next in line," she said. "Now is the time to be bold."

But it was Berwick, the pediatrician, health care reformer and Obama administration Medicare director, who grabbed enough of the anti-establishment vote to make it a three-way race in September.

In doing so, he exposed the weakness of both front-runners. A large part of the party rank-and-file still lacks confidence in Coakley four years after the trauma of her loss to Brown. And Grossman, who misplayed the expectations game by predicting a big convention win that would turn his poll numbers around, carries no momentum out of Worcester.

Berwick immediately declared that "in a three-way primary, I will distinguish myself as the bold, progressive alternative to the status quo politicians." That kind of talk indicates that what had been a cordial affair up to the convention is about to turn nasty.

Massachusetts Democrats didn't find a rising star they can unite behind against what promises to be a formidable opponent in Republican Charlie Baker. Instead, they set the table for what may prove to be a bruising primary battle.

Rick Holmes writes for MassPoliticalNews.com and is the opinion editor of the MetroWest Daily News. Follow MPN online and on Twitter @MassPoliNews.